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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

The Flash: Rebirth (spoilers)

I tell you what, this series makes a whole lot more sense and is much more enjoyable when read in one go.

I’ve never been a Barry fan, I didn’t know too much about him until recently and in my head he was an old fashioned 1D character that represented the old guard with all their stuffy ideas and out of date thoughts. Not that I knew who this old guard is, but in my head, there is one.

Then I picked up Rebirth, and for the first two or three issues I still didn’t care for Barry. He seemed self involved, moody, ungrateful and with no awareness of anyone else’s feelings. Then we found out that these weren’t actually Barry’s thoughts, he had become infected with the Reverse Flash’s peculiar version of the speed force. A-ha, all of a sudden Barry became more likeable, more heroic. I began to see what all these old Flash fans were harping on about.

Then he brings Max out of the speed force. And at this point I wouldn’t have cared what the rest of the mini was like, they’ve just reunited Bart and Max and I couldn’t be happier.

Then finally, in issue number 5 we get a new speedster. We get little Iris West taking responsibility for her brother’s pain and taking steps to end it. She’s all of 8 years old? 6? She shows greater maturity than a lot of adults in this universe. As a result, she passes out and Jesse Quick arrives. Jesse, newly rejuvenated and part of the speed force once more. She brings Irey West back to us and it becomes clear that Irey is the new speedster. With little lightening grips in her hair.

Then, as if that wasn’t good enough, when all the speedsters are racing along in formation (for anyone else this would be a Bad Ass Power Walk, but as they’re speedsters, they are running for the sheer joy of it), Wally uses the speed force to give everyone new uniforms.

Jesse Quick gets some new threads. Wally gets a shiny, darker, more modern version of the Flash uniform. And little Iris is in Bart’s old gear. Ladies and gentlemen, we have another Impulse! And Bart doesn’t look non too happy about it.

Thank you DC. You’ve made me one very happy fangirl.

(Although why is Linda Parks drawn more Caucasian than Asian? Is it just me? Have I forgotten what Asian people look like?)